Showcase: J. M. W. Turner

English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolorist, known for his expressive colorisation, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings, J. M. W. Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, to a modest lower middle-class family. He lived in London all his life, assiduously avoiding the trappings of success and fame. A child prodigy, Turner studied at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1789, enrolling when he was 14, and exhibited his first work there at 21.